On Her Own
by Faema
Summary: Seperated from the Imperium corporal Youngblood is "On Her Own", please give advice and potential items that will enhance the story, thank you : Thanks for the review Pixo
1. Chapter 1

874945:M42 Troop transport _Impervious_

(Corporal Joelle Youngblood was in the shooting range doing practise drills with her squad mates on thier way to the warzone on Capula XIV.)

Snap-Crack, a las round hit the target dummy squarly in the chest 50 meters away, Sergeant York was walking behind the squad bellowing orders to his troopers who were kneeling in a neat line behind the practice barricade, small low yeild lasers were firing back from the dummies on a random pattern to simulate a battlefield

The trooper next to joelle froze for a half second then collapsed to the ground a small red mark just under his left eye, she paid him no mind and aimed through the sights of her las gun again, Snap-Crack her lasgun slammed into her padded shoulder and another target dummy colapsed to the ground.

Sergeant York bent over the prone trooper and proceded to yell at him at the top of his lungs. What in the name of the Emperor are you doing soldier?

Sir, I was hit in the face Sir, the unfortunate trooper managed to squeek out through his frozen lips.

I can see that soldier! the sergeant yelled, my question was Why in the name of all thats holy didnt you keep your eyes on the target on DUCK!!

Sir, I guess I forgot Sir!

with that the Sergeant pointed a small data pad at the helpless trooper and released him from his frozen state.

You owe me 100 pushups, NOW!

The poor trooper rolled onto his stomach and started counting as he pushed himself up from the floor.

Snap-Crack Joelle's lasgun pounded into her shoulder once again and another dummy dropped to the floor. Reloading she yelled and ducked behind the barricade exchanging her spent practice clip for a fresh one, Rising above the Barricade once again she was greated with a sharp punch to the temple as a dummy moved into close combat range and connected with the flesh just under her helmet lip, the last thing she remembered before she blacked out was was seeing Sergeant York bending over her his face bright red and spittle comming out of his mouth as he proceded to yell at yet another failed training excersize.

* * *

Opening her eyes Joelle looked around at the stark white walls and curtains surrounding her, blinking in confusion it took a few moments for her to realize she was in the regiments med bay, not hearing anything she slowly sat up holding her pounding head in her hands and closing her eyes against the pain.

Blinking back tears she slowly stands up and opens the curtains, looking around she notices that there are many wounded and dying men and women laying everywhere, she spots Sergeant York by the door a massive piece of armor plating imbeded in his chest, his head lolling lazily as the ground shook. Her pain fogged brain finally begins to notice the sound of claxons and explosions in the back ground. slowly comming to her senses she left the med bay and grabbed a nearby lasgun that was left on the rumbling deck, checking its charge she started off towards the sound of battle.

Halfway to the corridor a giant hole appeared in the wall to her left, her mind regestered the hole miliseconds before the concussion hit her like Chimera crashing through a rockcrete wall, shaking her head and looking up her body froze in shear terror Huge armored figures came through the hole and began butchering her wounded comrades. seeing everything in slow motion the enemies were wearing red armor with spikes everywhere, the hornes comming out of their helmets looked like they were grone from the ceremite, the bolters looked old with belts of ammunition dangling from the bottoms and sides, one of the warriors tured and fired a bolt round in her direction, as it came screaming towards her she could see the rifling on the shot and the ugly inhuman face as it passed by her head and exploding the chest of the trooper who she didnt know was standing behind her.

Drenched in the mans blood and bone fragments from the exploding projectile everything seemed to speed up again, Corporal Joelle ran to the nearest corridor and went through a bolt round punching through the armored bulkhead were her head was a moment before and detonating on the far side.

Stumbling through the blinding smoke and darkness Joelle found a small hatch which opens, wearily peaking through she discovers the very spartan interior of an escape pod climbing inside and shutting the door behind hoping that none of the chaos marines saw her enter, sitting down quietly she takes stock of her situation, if the chaos marines take the ship its only a matter of time before they find her and kill her, if her comrades manage to repel the assault then the company commisar would execute her for cowardice and desertion, perhaps they will wipe each other out she begins to think when a massive rumble makes its way through the ship.

Joelle is thrown to the roof of the escape pod as a massive explosion tears the transport ship in half, protected from the cold void of space by the escape pod the young trooper floats weightlessly around the stark interior her blood dripping from the long gash in her arm caused from impacting one of the structural supports on the inside of the pod.

Joelle wakes up to floating around the cramped interior instantly wishing she had to forsight to strap herself in, she locates the blinking control panel and slowly makes her way over to the command chair and straps herself in. Looking around she notices a small book labeled "Instructions" bolted to the wall next to the panel, opening the book gingerly with her injured arm she laughs quietly, apparently the adaptes mechanicus priests had a sense of humor when they designed the escape pod because all that was in the book was a big red button that said "push"

Pushing the button turned on the artificial gravity and blood fell from the air where it had been floating to stick to the decking and some of the chairs, one particularly large glob landed on her shoulder and stuck fast, the lights on the panel came on and told her the date, apparently it had been a little over two weeks since her training accident, looking at the screen again which was showing the space around the escape pod she was amazed at the destruction that the ship she was on had suffered, it looked like the core had gone nova and the twisted remains of the ship looked partially melted.

After studying the display for a short time she selected the nerest inhabitable planet to try and land on, the pods machine spirit kicked in and launched her from the remains of the ship and after about on hour of correcting she was slammed back into her seat as the main thruster fired and went dead, the cronometer read 8 days 17 hours to arrival, having nothing else to do Joelle took out the pods first med kit and wrapped her injured arm in a steril pack and took some anti concussion medications that were in the pack. laying down to sleep on the uncomfortable deck she partially wished she hadnt turned the gravity on, at least she would be more comfortable while she slept.

* * *

8 Days later with her arm almost healed but leaving an ugly scar Joelle was once again sitting at the controls, the screen was blinking a warning "no signs of life detected, continue with landing procedure. Yes? No?" looking the the overly simplified star chart and the next planet being well over a year away Joelle pushed the yes button, Immediatly the pod starts to drop into the upper atmosphere.

Praying to the Immortal Emperor the the explosion didnt damage the pods shield array all she could do was hold on as the pod rocked and jerked with the atmospheric turbulance. as the pods braking thruster fired Joelle's vision turns gray and her breathing becomes shallow as her body is pressed into the seat by the gravitational forces of the planet and the pods deceleration.

Slaming into the ground at nearly 80 Kilometers per hour the impact jars her body roughly but is dampened by the soft earth of the crater that the pod created. checking the auspex for atmospheric conditions Joelle cracks the hatch open and steps out to a war torn wasteland. looking around at the scattered equipement and wrecked vehicles, a stech wafts over her and she violently retches at her feet, walking over to the bloated corpse of a guardsman she noticed the unit patch on his flack armor, "Voltaran 432nd 6th platoon 2nd company" walking through the battlefield she wonders to herself why someone hadnt burried the dead.

3 hours after landing she had her answer, as she saw the wreck of a missive starship that had plowed a trough into the earth a Kilometer wide and over 60 kilometers long, looking at the sky she began to understand why no life was present on the planet, it had suffered an extermanatus at the hands of the imperial fleet.

having no direction and few supplies she decided to try and find the imperial command post. looking through the bloated bodies of the dead she discovered a working data pad with a map and coordinates. setting the homing becon on the closest imperial controlled structure at least at the time that the unfortunate trooper was deployed she bagan to walk west south west, as night began to fall she could see the ruins of the imperial fortifications, they were situated on top of a small rise with an impressive feild of fire in all directions, as she got closer she saw more bloated bodies, looking at the corpses and seeing the split grotesque skin and the chaotic symbols of the traitor fenatics made her want to be sick all over again. as night fell she entered the wrecked building of the imperial post.

Knowing she would find no survivors here she bravely opened the rusted, bent doors of the post and found a discarded canteen and a commisarial cape as well as some rations and a las pistol, she felt a little more confident in her ability to survive this nightmare that had become her life.

"have the adventure of a lifetime" the holo vids said, "travel the galaxy" they said, "serve the emperor proudly and come home a Hero" they said. "in the Imperial guard all kinds of people are needed, we have thousands of positions available everything from custodian to commander, join today and jump start your career" "Always wanted to be a pilot? well in the Imperial Navy you can pilot anything from a lighting strike fighter to an Emperor Class Battleship"

Of course they didnt tell you that the odds of surviving your first deployment were zero, zilch, and none! Joelle grumbled under her breath as she prepared to make camp for the night in the ruins of the abandoned post.

The next morning a drizling rain was at a slight angle over the war torn ground, all around her were the corpses of dead men, women and chaos zelots. A slight breeze was blowing making the cloying scent of torn earth and rotting flesh more bearable. As she prepared to leave she threw her commisiarial cloak over her shoulders for some added warmth and protection from the rain, resolving to find some sort of hive city on the cursed planet she looked at her data pad and grimaced, 473 kilometers to the nearest place that might have some sort of ground transport to make her travel a little easier. with a sigh she picked up her things and stuffed them into the med pack and slung it over her shoulder.

Stepping out into the rain and looking up she noticed some lightning in the distance, not wanting to be stuck on top of a hill in a thunder storm she began walking in the direction the data pad indicated.

Making her way through the torn earth and wreckage of war was tough going, after three hours she had finally made it to what appeared to be some sort of track or path that someone had made for shuttling men and supplies to the front. it was remarkably easy to travel on the road as long as she stayed away from the craters and wrecks, but the stench of deacay and burned flesh was ever present making her gag more then once in her short trip.

looking at the data pad and seeing it was near sunset she decided to make camp in the burned out hulk of a Chimera troop transport, getting inside wasnt a problem as the rear hatch had been blown open by the force of the explosion that had destroyed the vehicle. with a satasfied nod she was glad that the men who had died inside were vaporised and she wouldnt have to clean the place before she went to sleep.

Dragging a piece of flack board over she covered the entrance to her shelter as best she could to shelter her from the rain she took of her cloak and hung it up on one of the jagged metal spars that were hanging from the roof to let it dry as she slept, still wearing her now dirty hospital smock it was rather chilly in the burned vehicle and she began to look for something that would insulate her from the cold metal.

after a few minutes of searching she found a partially intact survival kit which included an imune booster to help her fight off the radiation of the nukes used on the planet, a partially burnt emergency blanket, and a couple of chem logs for a small survival fire each one lasting 6 hours, checking to make sure she had enough ventilation in the vahicle and clearing the entrance hole she now had very slight breeze blowing through her shelter. lighting on of the chem logs it burned fitfully at first them took the chill out of the surrounding air, and acrid smoke drifted lazily upward to be carried away by the slight breeze. Moving her cloak closer to the small fire to dry faster she set the blanked out and hugged her knees to her chest and cried quietly.

She started thinking about her family back on Ryzan III and how they must be taking the news of their yougest daughters apparent death, she wondered what the recruiting commisar would tell her parents... was she a hero? did she die bravely in the service of the Emperor? or did they get the news of her death through a cowardly letter from the adminastratum?

Wishing nothing more then to be back home in a warm bed listening to her older brother and father bickering about the political aftermath of the Lord Governors untimely death she fell into a fitfull sleep.

Waking up some time later to the sound of thunder and lightning she guessed she had slept about two hours by the rate the chem log had burned, looking out across the crater filled landscape she was blinded by a lightning stirke then promptly defened by the loud boom created by the sundering of the air around it. stepping back to her fitful fire she noticed a small pack sitting under the bench of the Chimera that had remained unscathed by the blast, pulling it out and opening it she found a small black leather bound book with the holy emperor's scriptures inside its worn cover, a picture of a cute ebony woman holding an even darking looking child, turning the picture over she tried to read the words on the back but they were in a language she didnt know.

Setting the picture aside she kept looking through the pack and found a gas mask stuffed into the top of the pack followed by an extra shirt and trousers which she set aside, then she found a multi tool and enough field rations for a week, at least i wont go hungry she thought to herself. In the front pouch she found a multi size wrench and some wire cutters, the side pouch contained a portable vox set with a dead battery and the other side contained a full canteen with something that smelled of alcohol.

Casually Joelle discarded the battery and put the items back, leaving the clothes out and pulling some wire out of the wall of the chimera she put the clothes on and tied them up with her makeshift belt.

Feeling a little warmer she ate some rations consisting of powdered protein and dried vegetables and taking a few sips of the alcohol she went back to bed to the sound of thunder and the flashes of lightning.

Waking the next morning she looked outside to discover that it was still raining but the lightning had moved off towards the mountains in the far distance. gathering her things and putting on her cloak she stepped out into the rain once more and kept walking along the road. several hours later she came to the scene of a great slaughter of the imperial forces that were caught in a shallow bowl, looking down into the cold partially filled depression she noticed some figures wearing red ceramite armor curiosity overcame her judgement and she stepped into the bowl.

Aproaching the figure which was partly covered with dead imperial guardsmen she took a closer look at the monster, the armor was mostly red with black trim, skull motifs were emblazoned onto the armor and there were spikes everywhere, planting her foot on the dead man laying over the things neck and chest she shoved him off, even through the dried blood and guts she could see the 8 pointed star proudly emblazoned on the things chest, staring at it was making her quezy so she looked at the things head, the helmet was open and the horribly scarred and mutated face looked blankly up into the sky, grimacing she looked at the horn growing out of the center of the things helmet, looking at the corpse she realized that this thing was over 8 feet tall and armored like a space marine.

Cursing loudly at the dead comrade of the enemies that had killed her friends and destroyed the ship she was on she quickly left the depression and continued on her way towards the small town.

walking another few hours she began to notice that the amount of death around her was becoming less frequent and surmized that she was nearing the edge of the battlefield, guessing that she had crossed roughly 60 kilometers in the last two days she figured it would take her about 2 more weeks to get to the small most likely deserted and destroyed town, with nowhere better to go to she trudged onward, the road becoming easier to walk on with some sickly shrubs growing along the side.

Following the road was rather easy, it was a well maintained road with only a few ruts from the passage of the Emperor's war machines that had never retured. Cursing her fate once again as the rain started comming down she bagan to look for a place to camp, with no vehicles in sight on the road ahead of her and the closest one being several hours behind her and only some low sickly shrubs as the only shelter in sight she sighed, selecting the largest of the shrubs she walked over to it and began to clear the bottom, snapping of branches and twigs as best she could with the few supplies she had, she began placing the largest of these on top of the shrub for some added protection from the rain that was falling heavily now. Crawling inside she huddled under her cloak feeling miserable and cold. Deciding that the limited branches she had put on top were not enough she crawled out of her pathetic shelter to gather some more branches. walking over to the nearest shrub she started breaking the largest branches off, it was rather easy as most of them were hollow and the ones that wernt had a sponge filling that smelled sickly sweet, after gathering branches from several of the nearby shrubs and depositing them next to her shelter she began to stratigacally place the bushiest branches on the bottom and the rest on the top. selecting the dryest looking branches for a fire she placed those inside to keep them somewhat dry.

After piling a large amount of branches on the top of her shelter and reducing the amount of water getting inside to a few drips she squeezed inside and began to place the drier of the branches in the entrance of her small cave, pulling out a chem log and using the igniter to create a spark she tried to start some tinder made up of dry grass and bark, taking about 20 min the the tinder finally caught the spark and began smoking, in a few more minutes she had a small fire going in front of her with the sweet smelling smoke drifting up through the mass of branches heaped on top, warming her hand and feeling a little better despite her present condition she promptly fell asleep.

With a feeling of weightlessness she floated down a deserted street her feet comming close but not quite touching the ground, she tried to look around but discovered that her head was in a fixed position, only being able to look around with her eyes she studied the buildings passing by her. Looking at the cracked and fractured rockcrete walls and seeing the indentations of las and solid rounds ringing almost every window it looked like a battle was fought here, most of the building had colapsed in on themselves with some wooden beams sticking out like ribs, many of them blackened and chared, the deeper into the city she floated the worse the destruction became, at first it was hardly noticable with a building here and there being mostly rubble, it slowly became most of the building being mostly rubble then a few of those beind completly leveled with only a few stone blocks where the building had stood, watching where her feet were floating she bagan to notice other detritus of was, a discarded ration pack here a combat knife there, a helmet wedged between two fallen blocks a smear of crimson where someone had pulled a wounded comrade to cover.

floating along for what seemed like hours with the ground beneath her changing from paved streets and ruined building to broken earth and muddy pools, it almost looked like she was leaving the city, a whisp of unfelt wind parted the fog and she was looking at the walls of a hive city, the Adamantium and ceramite walls streaching to the horizon on the left and right and towering above her floating form to a height of 1/2 kilometer, the walls were impressive and fearfull, knowing that those walls contained heavy stubber nests, rocket tubes, and anti aircraft batteries as well as morter pits and sniper holes she began to feel a sense of dread as she slowly approached the walls, seing more detritus of war here then anywhere else in the city, there were broken bunkers hastily repaired just to be shattered again and again, the ceramite armor of chaos marines were scattered in places and the lighter flack armor and robes of cultests were scattered everywhere, most of them pressed into the earth by the billions of feet that had trod on the corpses of the dead in the attacks on the walls. as she floated closer to the defenses the armor scattered on the ground became thicker until she was floating above a solid mass of shattered armor and broken bone, the flesh having long since rotted away, looking up at the pristine grey and black walls of the city she bagan to notice massive craters blown into the hardened walls from seige weapons that the forces of chaos had employed.

Floating still further along the ground she looked down and noticed that she was floating above a light tank or troop transport that had been destroyed, seeing the armor fragments piled high against the sides of the vehicle and guessing that many millions of chaos worshipers had died and that the vehicle had most likely ran over the corpses in an attempt to assault the walls. floating still closer she started to notice main battle tanks of the chaos forces and lighter armored tanks of the traitor legions, all having been destroyed by some sort of artillery fire and anti tank weapons from the high walls, seeing that most of these tanks were burried under mounds of broken personel body armor and that the imperial forces stationed here had been most effective in destroying the enemy forces her heart began to lift at the thought that the traitor forces had failed to capture this unknown world that she was traveling in her dream.

Comming still closer to the walls and seeing the broken remains of the lighter seige vehicles like Leman Russ Demolishers, and vanquisher seige tanks, she was able to recognize these vehicles from the basic training she had before she deployed, what she was unable to recognize were the four legged spiky vehicles that were sporting two massive claws and a massive main battle cannon comming out of what appeared to be its mouth, she was also unable to place some of the large six legged walkers that were carying multiple seige cannons and cutting lasers, as she aproached the base of the walls she saw massive eight legged walkers with steam powered battering rams, the ram itself was twice as big as a leman russ tank and the damage it had caused to the base of the wall was horrendis, massive holes had appeared where the rams had managed to get into contact with the wall, molten debries and rockcrete that had been turned into glass from the amount heat that the melta blasts had produced, each hole in the base of the wall was large enough for an imperial lander fly into and have room to manouver, small holes filled the cavity in what Joelle assumed were passage ways for shuttling troops and supplies to the needed locations.

She kept floating closer to the wall and started getting very uncomfortable at the thought of slamming into its chipped surface, being within arms length of the the wall she tried to stick her hand out to stop herself she started to panic when her arm remained at her side, before the panic sould set in however she was passing through the outer layers of the heavily armored wall, swiftly passing through the outer layers into the the core of the structure moving swiftly by corridors that were blackened with soot and blown glow bulbs, las guns and flamers were dropped from the lifeless hands of the skeletons that littered the halls, both imperial and cultists alike, they diferences were easy to spot as the imperial forces wore tan and grey flak armor with grey helmets, and the cultists mostly wore purple robes with bits of flak armor when they found a piece that was still usable, there were more cultists bodies in the halls then imperial and once again her heart began to lift.

Expecting to see intact buildings and clear streets when she came out of the other side of the wall, she was dissapointed to find as soon as she exited the walls that the devistation continued, it was clear that the traitor legions tanks could not make it through the walls and that the cultists and chaos marines had assaulted the hive city on foot. the cultists had died by the millions there skeleton's were piled deep from the foot of the walls mixed in were the bodies of chaos maries these were infrequent and she guessed that they had used the cultists as a living shield so they could get close to the defenders. as her body floated towards the hastily barricaded streets she noticed the fallen defenders, included in the mix were loyalist marines, they were wearing dark green armor with black trim, the armor looked pristine and new except for the head sized hole punched through the imperial eagle emblazoned on his chest, next to the fallen marine were the corpses of imperial guardsman, these men wore different uniforms then the others, they had on white and light grey fatigues, with white flak armor and fur caps, they carried ancient looking las rifles with wooden stocks, the unit patch on on mans shoulder said they belonged to the Hell's Reach 3rd armored company regiment, she quickly found out what happened to their Chimera troop transport as she floated by the wrecked vehicle that was tilted on its side with its belly blown out from under it.

Floating down the street with blown out windows and open doors staring at her acusingly, dead imperial and chaos forces littering the ground under her. Her heart began to race as a sound reached her a quiet thump of a drum was felt more then heard, her body was pulled forward faster now the ground swiftly passing under her feet as more and more drums were felt, she began to hear them now, there was no rythm to the beats it was completly chaotic, traveling closer the the source the drum beats were accented by shrill screeches and screams, rounding corner she was looking at the main hive tower, the center of government and power for the entire city, seeing that the walls of the spire were decorated with the corpses of the defenders and feeling bile rise in her throat she was powerless to stop herself from floating forward. feeling her hand begin to burn but unable to do anything about it she felt that she was traveling toward her death, entering the spire through on of the main entrances which was littered with the corpses of fallen traitors and loyalist forces, it became obvious that the defenders had made a last stand here and lost. passing through blacked corridors and partially melted walls to finally enter into a large chamber, the place was filled to bursting with chanting cultists, in the center of the room were three space marines, thier power armor having been removed from their massive frames and thier wrists and feet having been nailed to massive wooden beams that could support a main battle tank, they were hanging with their head down and were completly naked, sickening insignia had been carved into there flesh that made her want to vomit and the pain in her hand was becoming unbearable and yet she was unable to stop herself from watching the ritual.

A massive form in spiky red and black armor stepped forward with a wicked looking dagger in his hand and began carving an eight pointed star in middle mans chest, gritting his teath to keep crom crying out in pain as the torturer completed the symbol the mands flesh began to bubble and puss ran from his wounds, not wanting to see anymore she tried to wake herself up from this nightmare.

Opening her eyes slowly she wondered briefly why the roof of her shelter looked like it was on fire, looking at her hand which had begun to blister with the heat she came completly awake to the realization of her own stupidity. Scrabling quickly out of her shelter and scalding her knees on the coals of her fire she quickly realized that she had left her things in the back, reaching back inside she was rewarded with another burn to her already damaged hand but was able to grab her pack and pull it out, backing away from the burning bush she quickly walked to a puddle and pushed her damaged hand under the surface. the cool water helped the pain immediatly but it quickly returned, she had to keep moving her hand in the water to keep the pain bearable. rifling through her pack she located the med kit and took out the burn spray, drying her hand on her cloak she quickly sprayed her hand and the pain was immediatly gone but the blisters would remain for awhile, at least the rain had stopped she thought to herself and she put her things back in her pack and started once again walking down the road.


	2. Chapter 2

Cresting a small hill Joelle looked down upon the small town, her hand still throbbed from the burn she had recieved a couple of weeks ago and she was still haunted by the nightmare she had that night.

Looking down the steep gravel grade at the ghost town and shivering slightly as the cold wind blew her cloak open, she studied the ruins from a distance of about a kilometer, pulling out a pair of worn and cracked magnoculars she took a closer look, even though the sensors on the escape pod said there was no life on the planet she had already had a run in with some wildlife. Looking at the town closer she could barely detect the indentations of small arms fire around the windows and door frames, several of the buildings had colapsed on themselves and she saw a few destroyed tanks and light vehicles, seeing the engines of a space marine land speeder sticking out of the ruins of one of the buildings and scout bikes laying on thier sides was a little disconcerting, looking into the shadows for any movement she finally decided that the town was reletivly safe to enter. picking her way down the loose gravel of the hill and into the outskirts of the town she began picking her way through the rubble and broken armor of the combatents, still marveling at the eficiency of the bacteria that inhabited this planet and the speed at which they consumed dead flesh.

Pulling out her las pistol she checked its charge and grimaced at the charge being only at half, two days ago it was just above so her power pack was slowly discharging itself, resolving to acquire a more reliable weapon at the first oportunity she continued to pick her way down the street. The wind was whistling through the ruins as she casually looked through the broken door of a building, seeing nothing of interest she moved on to the attached garage, the door was slightly ajar and there were mandy small holes in the local wood that made up the panels, again seeing nothing of interest she moved on to the next building. soon she was standing in the center of the town between the burning wrecks of a predator and leman russ battle tank she made a space clear of rubble and began stacking some of the black to create a low wall, having completed the space she left her pack and cloak on the ground next to the wall and set out to explore the town.

after looking into more building then she could count she finally saw one that looked like a makeshift infirmary, walking into the building she looked around at the heavy cots made to hold a space marine in full battle armor and lighter ones for the imperial guard troopers, seeing that all the beds were occupied by now dead men, she walked up to the corpse of a space marine in scout armor, looking his equipment over she pulled a combat knife off his belt and attached it to hers figuring he wouldnt need it anymore, seeing nothing else of interest she moved on to the next cot. after inspecting all the dead she went over to the pile of weapons that were tossed into a corner near the rear of the building, digging through the Boltguns that were to heavy for her to carry and lasguns that were dented and rusting she found a bolt pistol that apparently belonged to some guard officer, pulling it out of the pile she racked the slide back, it was a little stiff but functional, seeing that the rounds for the pistol were the same as the ones used in the larger boltguns she began pulling out ammunition and placing it in a pile on a dirty surgical blanket that she had pulled from a nearby stack, gathering a few hundered sounds she holstered her new pistol and shouldered her load of ammo and made her way back to the center of town.

looking at the sky and seeing it beging to get dark she built a small fire with the debris that littered the area and setteled in for the night, wrapping herself up in another blanket that she had taken from the infirmary she quickly fell asleep. Waking up the next day she relieved herself in an empty building a block away from her camp and continued her search. Making her way back to where she had stopped the night before she picked up a complete med kit and began stuffing pain killers and anti radiation drugs into a small pouch she found, taking a few spray bottles of burn cream she moved on.

looking into a half colapsed garage several blocks away she finally found what she was looking for, inside was a small farm vehicle, it had two doors and a shallow bed, the light blue paint was peeling from the dented metal but it looked like it was functional, picking her way into the building she came up to the driver door and looked inside, the seat was cracked and the padding was hanging out in many places, the steering wheel was just a circular metal bar welded to the column, and the stick shift looked like a piece of rebar sticking out of the floor. having never driven a standard before she was a little dissapointed but she understoot the theory behind its operation and opened the rusting door. the door screached in protest but gave way slowly, climbing inside she depressed the accelerator and the brake to see if they were operational, next she checked the clutch pedal which was a little stiff but went down without much effort, holding the clutch down she depressed the ignition button and the engine turned over slowly, depressing the accelerator to coax the vehicle to life the engine caught and roared, squeeling in triumph she shut the engine down and climbed out.

shoring up the colapsing garage and moving most of the debris out of the way she climbed back into the vehicle and started it again. putting the vehicle in gear she slowly released the clutch until it started moving, keeping the clutch partially depressed pulled the heavy vehicle out of the building and onto the street. steering around the colapsed walls and over blocks that couldnt be avoided she made her way back to the center of town, checking the fuel and seeing that it only had half a tank she decided to try and find more before leaving town. shutting the truck down and putting her meager posessions into the bed, she contnued her search, finding a gas can was easy, she simply pulled one off the side of the Leman Russ Battle tank, the fuel would be much harder. making her way to the fueling station that was in the town she checked the underground tanks with a long splinter that was laying near by, seeing the stick come out of the hole wet she grinned.

looking around for some way to retrieve the fuel she pulled some electrical wire out of the walls of a house and found an intact plastic cup in which she cut two small holes into it, tying a stone to the bottom of the cup to make it sink and attaching the wire to the top so she could retrieve it she slowly lowered the cup into the hole. pulling out one cup at a time it took the rest of the day to fill the fuel container, carrying it back to her vehicle she poared the promethium into its tank, spilling some on the ground she cursed quietly. the next day she brought all the containers she could find that would hold liquid and one by one filled each, making the short trek back to her camp carrying the fuel was tiring and by the end of the next day she had a full tank with enough fuel in the bed ro fill it up three more times.

Climbing into the cab early the next morning she started the vehicle and slowly drove out of town, picking up her data pad she located the nearest city that had and set it as her next waypoint, she figured it would take her two days driving to get there and brought the vehicle up to a speed of 45 kilometers per hour, avoiding pot holes and wrecked vehicles she drove silently down the road, stopping for lunch she checked her food supplies, seeing that she only had three meals left she hoped that there would be supplies in the city. climbing back into the uncomfortable cab she continued driving until night began to fall. Stopping for the night she rolled up the windows on the cab and layed down on the cracked seat to sleep.

Feeling dizzy she looked out the port window of the Emperor class Battleship whe was on, seeing the fleet of imperial vessals streatching into the distance until they were only specks of light she was awed by the power that these mighty vessels contained, hearing the admiral brought her out of her thoughts she looked at her tactical board, 30 million clicks out admiral she responded, the admiral grunted and gave the order for the smaller ships to break formation and move into position behind the third planet of the Cylux system, looking out the window again she saw the streaks of light that signaled the cruisers and destroyers moving into position, so far so good she thought to herself the chaos fleet hadnt detected them yet and probably wouldnt until they came around the systems second planet, a gas giant that had the imaganative name of Cylux II, all the planets in the system were dead and the only thing of value was an asteroid field that was used for mining purposes.

A fleet of dark eldar pirates had taken over the imperial mining facility that was near the asteroid field and were using the citizens as slave laber for thier evil operation. the administrator had sent out an S.O.S. as soon as the pirates were detected but all imperial forces were occupied elswhere, the exact disposition of the invading zenos forces was unknown and probably would have been left alone had they not been using the system to stage raids on imperial controlled worlds in the nearby sector. a call had gone out from the planatary governor of a forge world asking for assistance and three months later a fleet was assembled in orbit, the fleet had tracked the pirates forces back to this system and the whole fleet warped in to commence the purge. rounding the gas giant the imperial fleet came within range of the xenos forces. The Admiral fell hevily into his command chair and stammered out the order to fire. Looking at her screen again her eyes widened as she saw over one thousand dark eldar ships appear from apparently empty space. as the imperial ships began to open fire the lightnings and thuderbolt fighters engaged in a deadly dance with the oposing forces fighters, buying time for the heavy bombers to deliver thier payloads thousands of men and women died in the first few moments, as the bombers passed the skirmishing fighters a second wave of small dark eldar fighters pounced on the now defensless imperials, the defensive gunners on the bombers were good but the dark eldar craft were dark and fast.

The Admiral recovering from his initial shock told the comm officer to signal the flanking fleet to move in and attack, the original battle plan had been to force the xenos into a fighting retreat past the third planet where the light imperial craft would ambush them. abandoning this plan the admiral ordered the vanguard of his fleet to move forward engage the largest of the pirates ships a modified Torture class heavy cruiser, as the Imperial Battle ship approached the xenos ship two Coursair class escort ships appeared from behind the Torture heavy cruiser and opened up with thier filthy Xenos weapons. ordering a full broadside into the heavy cruiser the admiral moved his ship into the defensive arc of his escorts, several dark eldar frigates and destroyers moved into position behind the battleship and her escorts and opened up with thier weapons, the Imperial cruiser _Emperor's wrath_ was hit in the engine necels and her reactor melted down, the resulting explosion slammed into the Battlships shields and artificial gravity failed, the dark eldar ships fired again and the Admiral ordered the shields reinforced in the rear sectors to absorb the damage. the Torture class heavy cruiser finally opened up with its bow lances. looking through the small window at the incomming barage her stomach fell and she threw her arms in front of her face to protect herself from the shattering glass. half a milisecond later the entire bridge was vaporised as a lance beam tore into the upper hull of the might battleship.

Waking up in a cold sweat Joelle cursed loudly, rolling onto her back she looked up at the black clouds that had been her constant companion since she had made landfall several weeks erlier. lightning flashed through the clouds and she rolled up the windows on the battered vehicle in an attempt to stay dry. pulling small pieces of foam from the torn seat she stuffed them into the holes on the roof to keep the water from comming in and fell back asleep as the rain started falling makiing a soft pattering noise on the metal.

Waking up in the morning to the roof leaking anyway she sat up and got behind the wheel again. starting the truck she turned on the wipers and put the vehicle in gear. bringing the vehicle up to speed again she drove for several hours before stopping to take a break, the wind had picked up and the rain was lashing the passeneger side of the vehicle as she stepped out to stretch her legs, throwing her great coat over her shoulders to keep the rain out she ate one of her remaining rations and drank some water from her canteen that she had filled up from the towns well. looking up the road she could barely make out a slight dip in the road. Looking up at the clouds that were racing by she knew that she needed to get some warmer clothes as the nuclear winter was begining to set in and it would start to snow soon.

Climbing back into her truck she started driving down the road again, soon comming to the downgrade the shifted into a lower gear to keep from using the brakes so much. comming to the bottom of the hill she aproached a bridge over a rain swollen river, she came to a stop at the bridges edge and looked out across the span, cursing quietly as she saw the holes blasted through the rockcrete decking and the snapped cables the swayed in the stiff wind she inched forward. ready to throw the vehicle into reverse at a moments notice she slowly crawled across the bridge. approaching a chaos rhino APC from the rear she slammed on her brakes as the APC shifted, the decking cracked under the wieght of the vehicle and the rhino plunged into the rushing waters and dissapeared. inching forward again she drove as far away from the hole as she could and prayed to the Immortal Emperor for deliverance, stearing around the wrecks of war machines she was startled as a cable snapped slammed into a chaos predator tearing a hole the size of a space marine into its side, the cable then lifted the tank and shifted its five ton weight several meters, another cable snapped and passed right over her cab only to get tangeled in another cable that was still supporting the bridge. driving forward slowly she looked into her cracked rear view mirror and paled.

Mashing her foot on the accelerator Joelle steared around a baneblade sized hole in the bridge and felt the whole bridge begin to sink under her, keeping her foot on the accelerator she raced across the bridge trying desperatly to out run the collapsing structure. seeing the end of the bridge was near she was sickened as her view tilted upward and she was soon looking at the clouds that were racing by overhead.

With a cry of triumph her truck sailed into the air a few feet and slammed back down onto the hard road jolting her hands off the wheel for a few precious seconds, her foot was mashed against the accelerator and the truck careened out of control and slammed into a massive conctrete block. she slammed forward her hands having been reaching back up the the wheel they to went forward and her thumbs caught the metal and bent backwards she heard the snap of bones and cried out in agony moments before she blacked out.

Opening her eyes and groaning loudly Joelle looked out the cracked windshield, pushing herself off the steering wheel gingerly she rubbed her chest gently and grimaced. opening the door to her truck she stepped out into the light rain and looked at the collapsed bridge, the cables swinging lazily as the rush of swiftly moving water caused a slight breeze. reaching into the bed she dazidly grabbed the med kit and gave herself a shot of morphine, as the pain receeded she pulled out a tight wrap and scrounged around for a couple of stick to make splints for her broken thumbs. locating a suitable piece she sat down next to the rear tire, cutting the stick into five pieces she took the first and bit onto it, grasping her right thumb she cried out as she pulled and twisted it back into place, spitting out the stick in her mouth and gasping for breath it took her a few minutes to gather the materials to form the splint. several minutes later her first hand was done and she moved on to her other broken thumb, once again putting the stick in her mouth she bit down hard.

Climbing back into the cab she layed down, exhaustion quickly taking over she fell asleep. Waking up to water dripping on her forehead she struggled to sit up and gasped painfully. Cursing she reched onto the floor for the med kit, after feeling around for a few seconds she was rewarded with cut to her finger tips from the rusting floor and no med kit. rolling onto her side she sat up painfully and braced herself on the steering wheel and slowly opened the door, there was a light drizzle of rain as she stepped out. looking at the ground where she had given herself first aid she saw the med kit laying open, the box was filled with rain water and syringes and vials of medicine were floating on the surface gently bumping into one another. kneeling next to the box she pulled out a dose of morphine and gave herself the shot in her hip. a few seconds later she was feeling much better, pouring the water out of the box she closed it up and put it in the cab where it would be within easy reach. taking out some of her dwindling rations she ate the mac and cheese cold not even bothering the heat it up licking the thick cheese sauce off her finger she dropped the package on the ground and climbed back into the cab.

Saying a quick prayer to the Emperor she turned the engine over and was pleased when it started, pushing in the clutch she grimaced as her muscles protested and put the truck in reverse. easing the truck backward slowly so as not to drive off the edge she stopped the truck and then put the truck in first, easing the clutch out she was dissapointed to find that the vehicle didnt move and could hear a quiet grinding. pushing in the clutch once more she put the transmission into second gear, letting the clutch out the truck lurched forward and died. restarting the engine she let the clutch out again and gave it more fuel, the rear tire spun against the pavement and darted forward, gasping in pain she steared the truck away from the wrecks of war machines that littered the road and climbed the steep hill on the other side, cresting the hill she got her first look at an imperial battle line.

Neat rows of trenches streatched into the distance with cross trenches to connect them, skeletons dotted the landscape as far as her eyes could see most were piled high near the trenches where the defenders cut them down by the thousands before they were overun. outside the bunkers it was worse the blackened armor of hundreds of traitors were fused together leading up to the structure there were thousands of small craters leading up to the bunker where the traitors ammunition had cooked off in the intense heat. driving past the first trench she looked into the water filled ditch to see helmets floating on the surface and las guns and chain swords sticking out of the mud testified to the bitter battle that was fought here, passing by more trenches and running over ruined armor and weapons she was careful to avoid the knives and swords that littered the ground. roughly an hour of picking her way through the battlefield she came to the command post and came to a halt.

Gingerly stepping out of the truck she slowly walked up to the main command building, the rockcrete walls were pock marked with numerous solid round and holes where heavy weapons had been used to breach the facility, stepping inside through a set of double doors that were laying on the ground inside the building where they had been blown off thier hinges, the doors rocked unter her weight as she stepped on them, walking through the building that was surprisingly clean and free of corpses she picked up a data slate and turned it on, the clerance level for the information was vermilion and the decoder was left in the machine. reading the data she became enraged at high command for abandoning these loyal soldiers to die a fruitless death from the bombs of the Imperial navy. stuffing the data slate into her pocket she walked over to the long range vox unit and played with the dials until it came to life. hearing nothing she left the unit where it was sitting and continued her inspection of the facility. opening the door to the back room she stopped dead in her tracks. Nailed to several eight pointed stars where the generals and colonels of the forces that were deployed here the sight of the chaos markings made her ill and she quickly closed the door. going back to the vox unit she turned it off and started packing it up to take with her. placing the heavy unit into the bed of her truck she took a tarp that was covering an unused power generator and used it to cover the bed of her truck and keep her stuff dry.

Walking over to another building she looked inside, what she saw nearly stopped her heart, in the middle of the floor was a mound skulls floating above a small triangular platform. Chaos symbols were etched into the walls at random locations looking at the sides of the mound she noticed an eight pointed star and an X with a line on the bottom and through the middle, her knees felt week and her eyes started watering as she tried vainly to tear herself away from the morbid construction. she felt a light breeze on her back and felt herself being pulled towards the structure when something heavy wrapped itself around her legs tripping her, as she fell to the ground her gaze was taken away from the structure and she felt wholy herself again, not trusting her legs to hold her up just yet she unwrapped the unit flag that had tripped her and crawled away from the building.

Resolving to destroy the morbid construct of chaos she began looking around for some demolition charges or at the very least some promethium. finding a sentinal construction vehicle she climbed inside and powered it up, grasping the controls she jerkily moved the cumbersom walker towards the building when she noticed a set of double doors set into the ground, guiding her vehicle over to it she used the power lifter to open the door and was rewarded with a supply depot. Walking inside and turning the head lamps on she walked up to a crate labeled (Leman Russ Shells). Using the power lifter she picked up the crate and walked it outside, setting it down next to the offending building she returned to the depot and grabbed another crate labeled (power packs: Plasma Cannon). picking up that crate she also took it out and set it next to the other crate. an hour later she had a stack of eight crates next to the building. having no way to detonate her makeshift bomb she parked the sentinal next to the crates, she went back into the depot.

grabbing a crow bar from the wall she pried open a crate without a label and found several thousand Ration packs. prying open another crate she found potable water capsules, the third crate was medical supplies. twenty crates and an hour later she finally found what she was looking for, a small crate of hot shot sniper pattern las rifles, taking one out she quickly inspected it and was satisfied that it would serve her purposes, walking over to a nearby wall she grabbed several pouches and filled them with food and water tablets, filling another with medical supplies that included anti radiation drugs she carried her packages out of the depot and over to her truck, the drizzling rain had stopped but the wind had picked up and chilled her to the bone. pulling out a can of fuel she walked over to the stack of crates and dumped the whole thing over the top, taking another smaller can she set it on top and climbed back into her truck.

Driving away from the building she stopped on a smaller hill several hundred yards away, pulling out the sniper rifle she slapped a power pack into the reciever and layed down on the ground. extending the bipod under the barrel she looked through the scope and lined up on the fuel can sitting in top of the pile. Releasing her breath and holding it for a second she pulled the trigger, the rifle roared and slammed into her shoulder, she cried out in pain as the movement caught her broken thumb painfully. Looking through the scope she saw a hole in the wall up and left of the can, lining up another shot she lowered the cross hairs down and right. moving her thumb out of the way she waited until her breathing had slowed down then held it for a second as she squeezed the trigger again. The rifle slammed into her shoulder causing her to grimace, the fuel can grenaded as the las round pierced its side, the fuel inside ignited from the intense heat and showered the crates with flaming debris. the fuel poured over the crates caught and a minute later she could hear small munitions begining to detonate. a full thirty seconds later the tank shells went off from the intense heat produced by burning fuel and packing materials.

The cuncussion hit her like an Emperor class Battleship and threw her bodily over the crest of the hill, her truck was shoved backward a few meters and the windshield shattered into millions of tiny shards coating the seat with crystals. her ears were ringing and she turned her head to look at the building. she smiled lazily as she saw the massive crater caused by the explosion and she blacked out.


	3. Chapter 3

Waking up some time later to her body aching and shivering Joelle rolled onto her stomach, the movement caused her to become violently ill and she vomited on her hand. looking up at the now snow covered hill top she had been laying on she located her sniper rifle under a shallow blanket of dirty snow and retrieved it. using the rifle as a crutch she stood up painfully and limped over to her ruined truck.

Opening the driver door she looked at the broken glass and wearily began wiping it off the seat, climbing in she pushed the clutch in and hit the ignition button. The engine caughed a few times then began idling, putting the truck in gear she released the clutch and drove toward the supply depot entrance. noting that the entrace was wide enough for the truck she pulled it down into the bay and shut it down.

Walking painfully back to the doors she located the control panel and hit the runes to close them and nothing happened, to weary to deal with it she turned away to find someplace warm sleep.

Walking over to the small door that led to the office, she opened it and stepped in and closed the door behind her.

Joelle was immediatly enveloped in darkness as she felt around the room looking for a chair. Finding the chair she sat down heavily. reaching forward she located the desk and pulled herself up to it to lay her pounding head down, she quickly fell asleep and started snoring softly.

Opening her eyes some time later she was greeted with grey light pouring down the depot doors illuminating the spacious interior. Looking out the small window of the office she was shocked to find that half the room had collapsed. there were supplies scattered around the edge of the pile of debris. Picking up a partially buried med kit she opened it and took some pain killers from it and swallowed them.

scouting further back into the depot with her head pounding alot less then earlier she found an imperial fast attack vehicle still under its tarp. upon removing the tarp she discovered a small yet powerful fuel-less engine attached to the automatic transmission, there was a pintle mounted heavy bolter attached to the gunners seat and a storm bolter attached to the bars in front of the passenger seat. the vehicle looked new and was probably built on site, looking around further she found a complete maintenance bay with tons a spare parts.

Making her way back to where she had left her truck the night before she climbed in and started it, driving it to the maintenance bay she parked it inside in one of the empty service spaces and climbed out. walking over to the nearest crate she pried its wooden lid open and peaked inside, not seeing what she wanted she kept searching until she found a crate with guard issue field blankets and a crate of cots next to it. pulling out a cot and several blankets she took these back to her truck and set them up.

Taking out a ration pack she tore it open.

The smell of Lasagna hit her nose and her stomach immediatly started growling, waiting the two minutes for the meal to auto heat was pure agony as her stomach protested. after what seemed like an eternity her meal was fully cooked and she took out the small fork that also came in the package and started eating. The taste of the marinara sauce hit her tongue like a frag grenade explosion and the soft chewy pasta parted easily as her teeth came down on it. the cheese stuck to her teeth and she was forced to lick it off with her tongue.

Twenty minutes later she had finished her meal and sat on her cot contentedly with her eyes forcing themselves closed. having eaten something other then emergancy rations had been a blessing but her body not used to the nutrients in the food and was rebelling by pulling her to sleep. Closing her eyes one last time her chin sank to her chest and she fell heavily onto the cot. the caked dirt from her dirty clothes smeared on the clean blankets and her booted feet clicked against the support pole.

Feeling like she was floating joelle tried unsucessfully to open her eyes. feeling warm and comfortable she stopped trying and drifted lazily through her haze.

Hearing the clank of booted feet she felt her heart start pounding, she tried desperatly to open her eyes but they refused. hearing a deep male voice call out she felt the evil emenating from him.

Have you located what our god desires?

another male voice responded, this one was raspy and old.

My lord, the artifact you seek is on a hive world inside the borders of the imperium of man.

How can this be the chaos lord responded, it was within my grasp on the tau world of Arthas Moloch then dissapeared.

My lord, the raspy man said, our patron Khorn has deemed the sacrifices that were made to be insufficient in your ascent to daemonhood. Khorn requires more. He has moved the artifact to this new world so that more blood may be spilt.

and how were you able to locate the artifact psyker, the chaos lord asked with utter contempt.

my lord, the psyker said, there was a disturbance in one of khorn's cultist enclaves and the resulting psychic shock wave revealed its location.

finally forcing her eyes open she was horrified to find a huge man with his back to her, his power armor was a dark red with black trim, there were bronze and silver highlights all over and the mans belt seemed to be made of the skulls from different species, she recognized human and orc skulls but some of the others were more difficult to identify. A massive two handed sword was slung across his back crackling with barely contained demonic energy, an ancient plasma pistol with bronze sigils carved into the silver metal was holstered at his side. The mans helmet was a huge skull with 4 massive horns comming out of the top, on each horn was a gold ring that hummed quietly with powerful energy, he seemed to shimmer as he moved about the large room that the three of them occupied. the front of his helmet was a grotesque visage of a snarling beast with adamantium fangs and eyes the color of fresh blood.

The other man was nearly bent over doubly with age and he was using a tall wooden staff to support himself, he was covered in a deep red robe with chaotic runes stitched in gold and silver thread that hid every inch of his frail body except his claw like hand that grasped the staff. the staff was remarkable in the fact that upon closer inspection it wasnt wood, it was bone that was so ancient as to have turned dark brown. looking closer she saw it was covered in thousands of tiny runes at the top of the staff was a blood red crystal that glowed minutely and seemed to float above the end of the staff, he radiated an aura of evil power.

both men paused and the psyker asked if the other felt something.

the chaos lord confirmed and they both started looking around.

the hooded one turned and looked right at her and she had a feeling of purest evil, she could feel her death coming for her.

the hooded man screached, SPY! and pointed directly at her, the chaos lord man drew his glowing red sword and charged. as the sword descended on her she opened her eyes to find herself staring into a darkened room with small green power lights from a portable generator glowing lightly.

Her heart was beating so fast because of the dream, she felt as if it were real and that she had come within a hairs breath of being killed.

Rolling onto her back she tried calming herself by doing some breathing excercises, her exhausted body quickly dragged her racing mind into a dreamless sleep.

Locating the small generator that she noticed near the maintenance area she was pleased to discover that it was attached to a welder she began dragging it over for the purposes of building a trailer and some armor plating for her new found vehicle. she remembered the theory behind emergancy vehicle repair from basic training and figured it would not be an afront to the finiky machine spirits to modify the vehicle as it would ensure its use instead of sitting here rusting.

turning the generator on it gave off a low hum, next she powered up the welder and began practising on a piece of scrap metal she found laying near by. stopping several hours later she had only managed to cut through the piece of metal in several locations and burn her already sore hands.

laying the welder down she opened another ration pack and ate quietly, thinking of the dream she had the night before. something about the skull helmet was bothering her, almost as if she had seen it before.

returning to the welder she bagan practicing again, this time she was better and managed to attach two pieces of metal together.

several days later she finally felt ready to build her trailer. grabbing some tools she began collecting the pieces she believed she would need. the first thing she brought over was a large piece of flat metal that would serve as the floor, next she welded four square tubes to the sheet to give it some rigidity, putting smaller pieces between the main bars she made it so that the bed would not curl.

She welded three pieces of angle in a diamond formation and attached a bracket for the axle to be bolted to, repeating this formation on the other side, she used a measuring tape to center it and a level to make it the same height.

next she drove her truck out of the depot and located a ruined vehicle half buried in the snow, checking the axle to see if it was broken she was pleased to find that it wasnt. attaching a chain to the wreck she towed it into the bulding and cut the axle out.

attaching the axle was a bit more complex then she first anticipated, she ended up welding a loop over the tube that contained the axle then welded the loop to the tube itself. doing this to both sides she hoped that it would be strong enough to hold.

the tires were another matter entirely, she had four tires from the truck but they were of a different bolt pattern then the axle on the half built trailer. resolving to fix the issue later she moved on.

Flipping the trailer over required the truck and a heavy piece of rubble, she used a jack to lift one end and attached the chain to a loop she had welded to the frame, pulling the truck forward slowly she put tension on the chain, revving the engine she released the clutch.

the tires broke traction and the wheel jerked out of her wounded hands, the truck moved back and forth leaving streaks of burnt rubber on the rockcrete floor. she felt the truck move forward slowly and she kept her foot on the accelerator, seeing the trailer lift slowly she was surprised when her truck suddenly lept forward as the loop broke. with the tension suddenly gone the chain flew towards the cab.

looking into her rearview mirror the chain approached the cab in slow motion, her eyes widening. she dove onto the seat as the chain passed through the rear window showering her with broken glass. the truck lept forward and stopped as it smashed into a rockcrete post sticking out of the floor. joelle was propelled forward off the seat and into the dash board.

Pain exploded up her arm and she gasped in shock. picking herself up off the floor of the truck she looked through the broken windshield to see steam rising from under the hood and the chain laying through the cab and off the front end.

looking at the driver door which was partially adjar she kicked open and slid out. reaching back into the truck she turned the ignition switch to the off position and walked slowly towards her camp.

taking some pain killers from a med kit she Layed back on her cot and covered herself with a blanket and quickly fell asleep.

Waking up to a splitting headache she sat up slowly and looked around at her meager camp, figuring she had been asleep for a few hours she threw off her blankets and stood up. walking slowly over to her wrecked truck she decided on a different approach

Finding some pieces of angle she took some measurements creating a square was difficult in the fact that she had no tools to make the frame square so she took two crate lids and set them together forming a rectangle, placing the angle on the edges of the crate lids she welded two pieces toegether, taking a square from the table she placed it in the corner of the weld and cursed, taking a big hammer she banged the shorter piece of the L shape forcing it closer to the longer piece, next she attached another short piece of angle on the top, chacking it with the square she had to hammer it closer to the long piece as well. with the three pieces connected she ran a tape measure from corner to corner to get an accurate measurement having to use the hammer again the spread out the pieces until the corner to corner measurement was within a few centameters, finally she attached the last side making a rectangle, once again she measured from corner to corner.

Finding that the frame was square she put cross five pieces of cross bracing in the middle with the center piece being a square tube. cutting the axle from her first attampt at she welded the outer casing to the square tube.

Finding that with alot of exertion she was able to manually lift one side of the frame she constructed tripods of different heights to assist her in flipping the trailer over. getting the trailer abover her waist was to most difficult part. after setting the trailer on the waist high tripod she squated down and braced herself, using her legs she managed to lift the trailer to shoulder height and placed a tripod under it

attaching a chain to the high edge of the trailer and to the roll cage of the fast attack vehicle she climbed behind the wheel. Sitting down the seat wrapped itself around her slight frame, the back of the seat came above her head, the whole seat molded itself around her body like a glove around her hand.

Pressing gently on the accelerator the vehicle moved forward pulling the chain tight, when the vehicle stopped she pressed harder on the pedal and the trailer came up and over with ease then crashed down with a loud clang of metal on rockcrete.

stepping out of the vehicle she released the chain and and went back to the trailer, taking a couple more pieces of angle she welded them upright to make sides that were one and a half meters high. welding some flat strips along the side to help contain anything she wanted to carry she also put a tongue on the trailer to attach to her new vehicle and was finally done with the frame.

taking several crates she took the tops, sides, and bottoms and placed them along the bottom and sides of her trailer and then attached her trailer to her vehicle with a large verticle bolt through an even larger hole on the tongue so that it could swivel.

taking the tires of her wrecked truck she placed them on the drums of the trailer, centering the hole in the rim with the oil well on the drum she tack welded the tire in place and began spinning the tire to make sure it was centered properly. satisfied that she could haul a fair amount of supplies with her she took several boxes of heavy bolter ammo and strapped them to the gunners seat, then she fixed the heavy bolter in place so that it was firing directly forward, next she attached both the heavy bolter and the storm bolter to an electronic trigger attached to the steering wheel so she could fire them.

the trailer was two meters wide by five meters long. Joelle placed her cot and many blankets in the front of the trailer then constructed a housing around her cot to keep the weather out, placing a tarp over the housing which she then nailed down with nails from the crates.

with her makeshift home complete she began loading rations and medical supplies onto the trailer, trying to make the most of the space she stacked the supplies to the top of the trailer but not over the rail. Taking a cargo net that was left over a shipment of crates she placed that on top of her trailer using some metal strips she bent them into a into a C shape and used them as hooks to hold the net in place, it worked well because the cargo net stretched and didnt allow the hooks to come loose.

Lastly she made a gate out of excess crates and blocked off the end.

Taking small sheets of metal she began welding them to the frame of the vehicle. placing the sheets around the drivers seat she allowed for easy access to the heavy bolter above her and the storm bolter to the side, protecting her front with a piece of metal she cut a hole 30 centameters high and wraped it around where her head would be. filling the vision slit with pieces of flat glass she culked them in place so they wouldnt leak.

by now her welding abilities have dramatically improved and she was able to place a roof over her head and was sure it wouldnt leak. leaving a place behind the drivers seat to enter and exit the vehicle. taking short screws she stuck them in the tires of the vehicle for extra traction in the ice and mud that she was sure was covering the surface. she finally felt ready like her vehicle was ready for travel in the harsh climate that had occured since she came down here.

Placing several med kits in the cab as well as an auspex and data pad with a map of the planet she climbed behind the wheel and snuggled herself into the seat which wraped around her heavly clothed body. turning the engine on she pressed the accelerator and moved the vehicle towards the ramp, seeing the ice and snow covered ramp she gunned the vehicle and shot up the ramp.

the tires came off the ground and quickly slammed back down onto the frozen earth with a jolt. turning the wheel the tires stuck to the ground like glue and the vehicle responded immediatly, the response starteled her and she had to counter steer to remain in controll. comming to a stop facing north she looked around at the snow and ice covered terrain, seeing nothing but white she put on a pair of glare shades and checked the data pad and auspex, steering the vehicle onto the correct path she pressed the accelerator lightly and started off in the direction that the data pad said was the nearest hive city.

Traveling in the Fast attack vehicle was rather enjoyable, the shocks kept her from bouncing around and the seat absorbed any jarring motion from the rough ground. after several hours she passed beyond the edge of the battlefield and into open terrain and she was able to move at seventy kilometers per hour.

Several days later she came to a halt at the crest of a hill and was overlooking the remanants of a hive city. Looking through a pair of magnoculars she located a fairly open road, open was relative it was just less rubble strewn then the rest, driving down the hill she approached the city and came to a halt before the entrance to the outskirts.

with a nagging feeling that she had been here before she slowly drove her vehicle down the street, the power of the vehicle suprised her as it easily climbed over colapsed walls and piles of debris, Looking at the cracked and fractured rockcrete walls and seeing the indentations of las and solid rounds ringing almost every window and yet seeing nothing moving disturbed her, there were no bodies, no discarded equipment, absolutly nothing.

Moving deeper into the city she began to notice that most of the buildings had colapsed in on themselves with some wooden beams sticking out like ribs, many of them blackened and chared. she noticed pieces of ragged cloth flapping in the stiff winter wind like banners, most were crimson and the others were so faded that their original color was impossible to determine, she began to see scattered equipment a discarded ration pack here a combat knife there, a helmet wedged between two fallen blocks a smear of crimson where someone had pulled a wounded comrade to cover.

the deeper into the city she drove the worse the destruction was, at first it was hardly noticable with a building here and there being mostly rubble it soon became that most of the building were rubble and the road became impossible to follow.

Driving deeper into the city she noticed destroyed vehicles and crashed aircraft from both combating forces. most of the buildings were completly leveled and driving became much easier as she didnt have to avoid walls that were only partially crumbled.

The ground started to become pockmarked with giant craters that could only have been cause by artillary, at first these craters were easy to avoid but soon they started overlapping and she was forced to drive through the wide and shallow artillary scars, the ground soon became broken and muddy as the pooled water hadn't quite frozen yet.

Driving became more difficult the farther she progressed but soom she passed beyond the minimum range of the artillary. a slight breeze parted the fog and she found herself staring at the massive adamantium walls of the inner city, the walls rose half a kilometer above the ground with its massive battlements, heavy weapon emplacements and anti aircraft batteries it was an impressive sight.

Looking over the broken and frozen earth between her and the wall her blood froze in her veins. streatching out in front of her were piles of bones, armor, and destroyed vehicles, taking out her magnoculars she scanned the base of the hive wall and discovered that at the base of the walls were massive eight legged walkers with battering rams, the ram itself was twice as big as a leman russ tank and the damage it had caused to the base of the wall was horrendis.

Looking at the walls she noticed cracks and fisures in the surface as well as soot from burning vehicles and flamers that had belched their leathal payload over the defenders.

With a heavy heart she drove toward the wall slowly crunching armor and bone under her tires as she went. she quickly approached the main gate to see a massive hole melted through it easily big enough for severl drop ships to fly through with room to spare. driving over the destroyed remains of tanks that partially filled the gap she came through into the inner city, seeing mounds of dead chaos forces it looked like waves slowly approaching an impenatrable cliff. the farther from the gate she got the higher the wave.

Finally passing over the last wave she saw the imperial lines chaos cultists and marines lay dead up to the forward blockade before they started to mingle with the grey and tan flak armor of the defending guard and the dark green armor and black trim of the loyalist marines that had also perished at the hands of the arch enemy.

driving over the baricade she came into a relativly clear street with only a few broken walls, she was still driving over the bones and armor of the combatants, the silence was broken only by the sound over her tires crunching over the dead and the quiet purr of the engine.

comming to the base of the mane spire she turned her engine off and stepped out of the vehicle. looking up she saw the outside walls were decorated with the broken bones of humans. Taking her sniper rifle, bolt pistol, and combat knife that was more like a sword to her, she made her way inside the spire. Passing many broken doors and empty hallways with partially melted wall she came to a massive chamber, in the middle of the chamber were three skeletons that had been nailed to massive wooden beams that could support a main battle tank, the men she realized quickly were loyalist marines that had been sacraficed to whatever dark gods the chaos forces worshiped, they were hanging with their heads down and she saw the massive bones that were bigger then her thigh.

walking slowly down the chamber she approached the skeletons in the center and knelt before them. A rightous Rage filled her and she prayed fervently that the Almighty God Emperor would give her the strength to avenge her fellow soldier that had valiently given their lives in the defense of this planet.

not knowing how long she had kneeled before these glorious heroes of the Imperium she stood up on shaking legs and left the spire. Locating the armor that the marines had worn she picked up a space marine sized data pad and turned it on. the armor at her feet was dark green with black trim a golden eagle was emblazoned on the chest piece, there were many purity seals and awards attached to the armor, the backpack had been roughly torn from the suit and lay a few yards away the eagle heads on the vents glared outward and seemed to stare at her in approval.

Looking at the data pad she followed a simple course through the hive and onto a landing platform for space craft, all around her were wrecked and burned landing craft and fighters of every type known to man and a few that wern't seeing a dark green thunderhawk with its nose buried in the adamantium walls of the hive she approached it and found many of the systems still operational. Looking through the cooridor towards the cockpit she saw that it had been crushed by the impact and that all communication equipment was lost, she did however locate a functional radar station manned by the bones of its operator, looking at the scope she was releaved that it was blank.

leaving the platform she went back into the hive and located the tourist information office, walking in she saw that this room had been untouched by the war and she sat down at a computer terminal to plan her next move.


	4. Chapter 4

Turning the computer on corporal Joelle youngblood began looking for isolated areas away from the war torn lowlands and fields. Further narrowing her search to areas with large limestone caverns she came up with two possible locations.

Bringing up known maps of the locations she selected the one cave system with fourteen known entrances, at the bottom of the cave system was an underground river with a strong current. the source of the water was unknown and the data indicated that no matter where the indicator dye was dropped it never reached the river.

the cave system had roughly seven thousand miles of tunnels ranging from passages that only a skull probe could enter to tubes large enough for a baneblade super heavy tank.

With so much room the caves were a natural shelter and she figured that the people in the local area might have gone to ground there and she would not be alone. Deciding to travel there she began making plans for the four day trip.

Not being particularly pressed for time she bagan scouting out the hive spire, each level was roughly twenty square miles with thousands of rooms and shops.

Deciding not to walk around for months on end she found a small battery operated vehicle that was still charged and climbed in.

hitting the accelerator she drove through the debris and shattered glass of the store fronts in the merchant districts. running over discarded armor and weapons of all types she stopped outside a clothing store and looked at the items hanging on the hundreds of racks.

Truning her electric cart off she walked inside and began looking through the clothing. locating the shirts that fit her she took her filthy great cloak and dirty shirt off and dropped them to the ground. taking her bra off in the middle of the store she felt momentarily embarassed then got over it as there was no one around to observe her.

selecting a clean bra from the rack she tried it on. not being a large chested woman had its advantages, she didnt need a bra for the support it provided but rather the comfort of not having her breasts flopping around as she moved.

feeling more comfortable with the cream colored bra on she selected six more from the rack of the same size and color. moving on to another rack she took seven black bra's and three white that had little pink flowers sewn between the breast cups. righting an over turned buggy she deposited the bra's in the basket and moved on to the shirt rack.

Looking through the shirts she pulled medium sized shirts out and casually discarded the ones with holes or burns from the vicious fighting that had occured in the area. finding some undamaged shirts was more difficult as it appeared that one side or the other had used at least part of the store for cover. finally managing to locate some undamaged shirts on a back rack she began going through them.

Pulling out a bright orange short in her size she read the front of the shirt and laughed, the shirt said "one of us is thinking about sex... ok, its me" after going through the rack of clothes she had three shirts that fit her and the rest were strewn about on the floor.

Pushing her buggy through the store she next went to the pants, never having liked denim pants she skipped that section and went strait for the slacks. unbuckling her belt she let her dirty pants fall to the floor and stood in front of the shelves surveying all the different colors. pulling a pair of black slacks from the self she tried them on.

The pants fit her a little snugly around the butt but fit her long legs perfectly. pulling these off she tossed them and two more just like it into her buggy then moved over to the khaki colored section and found seven pairs that fit. these followed the black ones into her buggy which were followed but four blue and one green pair.

having finished looking through the pants she moved on to the panty isle. taking her nasty blood streaked panties off she selected a pair of white panties with black polka dots and slipped them on. enjoying the feel of the clean fabric pressing against her sensative skin she picked through all the panties and took any that were size five, or six, having experienced many different cuts she stuck with the boyshort panties and left what she refered to as butt floss to rot.

having selected thirteen different patters and close to one hundred pairs of panties she put on a pair of khaki pants and moved over the the socks.

kicking off her guard issue combat boots she was assailed by a foul odor from not having changed her socks in two months. pulling off her stiff socks she looked at her sweat wrinkled toes and grimaced. tossing her socks and boots to the side she opened a package of colorfully patterned socks and slipped some on, feeling much better now that she was wearing clean clothes and took twenty four packages of socks and tossed them into her buggy.

moving over to the shoe section she found a pair of low top brown shoes that fit her feet. leaving these one she picked out several pairs of shoes and a couple pairs of boots in the same size and left the store.

tossing her items into the small cargo compartment of the electric cart she left the buggy out in the street and drove off.

Feeling a hundred times better with clean clothes on she drove through the debris strewn streets, bouncing over rubble she stopped at another clothing store and walked in.

This store seemed to have weathered the storm of combat mostly unscathed. stepping up to a coat rack she tried on several that were her size and threw them over her shoulder. one was a black trench coat with silver buckles, another was dark green hoodie with a cat design on the front and the last was a pink button up sweater.

walking over to the belt rack she pulled out eight leather belts with various buckles and clasps and added them to her stockpile.

walking out she placed these items onto the passenger seat of the cart and left, having no more room to place items in she drove back to the landing platform and unloaded her items onto the travel counter.

making half a dozen trips out into the city that day she managed to collect a few dozen plastic tubs which she filled with her shirts, pants, panties, and bra's and stacked them next to the counter. figuring plastic would keep out moisture better then anything else she brought in her supplies from her home made trailer and placed her rations and med packs into the containers and stacked them with the clothing.

figuring she would need much more supplies to survive for a lengthy period of time she stretched out on the floor behind the counter and fell asleep.

walking sever hours later with a stiff neck she swallowed a pain killer and drove her fast attack vehicle out into the shopping district, having emptied her trailer the night before she felt more comfortable and less picky about what items she was collecting. Still picking out the clothes that fit her and didnt have holes or burns on them was a tedious job but one that she was enjoying immensly.

Comming for the poor quarter of a small hive on her homeworld she had never been to the main shopping quarters and had never owned anything really nice, most of her clothes back home were rough and made to last. It was a lifelong dream to go shopping for clothes and be able to pick out anything she wanted.

after having filled another two dozen tubs with clothes of all types, she was on her way back to the landing platform when she spied a jewelry store sign down a side alley.

stopping her vehicle she climbed out and walked to the store front. the store have been closed properly was locked and barred. the glass had been broken but it appeared as if no one had been able to enter through the security bars that lined the interior windows.

An idea blossomed in her mind and she went back to her vehicle, grabbing several small explosive charges she placed them at the tops and bottoms of several bars and stood off to the side. Hitting the button on her romote controll for the charges she was momentarily defened by the concussion. When she looked at the store front again there were three bars laying on the ground and a hole large anough for her to get inside.

Stepping into the store she saw a U shapped counter in the middle of the floor with the closed end nearest the front door. stepping up to the counter she was rewarded with thousands of glittering gems, gold bands, and necklaces of every color and description.

Grinning to herself she smashed the front of the counter, thousands of glass shards fell to the floor and over the jewelry in the very front. reaching in she pulled a ring out and slipped it on her finger. It was a simple gold band with a flat cut blood diamond across the top that hugged the band. having very little protrusions she felt confidant that the ring would not snag on anything.

Pulling out a simple silver necklace with a platnum heart and a white diamond she put it around her neck. stepping behind the counter she located a stack ov canvas bags. taking the jewlry she stuffed all the bags full enough that she could still close them. making several trips out to her trailer she placed the bags in the back and went back to the store.

opening the door to the back she discovered a safe that was bolted to the floor and wall. the safe was closed and locked but a little searching revealed the combination. turning the dial left she stopped on the number 28, rotating the dial right three times she stopped on the number 44, rotating the dial left again twice she stopped on the number 79, with a loud snick the door unlocked. grasping the handles she pulled the door open and gasped.

in the safe were drawers filled with diamonds, emeralds, ruby's, saphire's. among the jewles were several gold bars weighing ten pounds each. next to the drawers was a gun rack, the rack contained a ten guage shot gun with several boxes of ammo. the weapon was obviousally an antique as it had a pistol grip and a solid shoulder stock. the metal was polished adamantium with a golden aquila just behind the rear sight. picking up the heavy weapon she turned it over in her hands, seeing the care with which it had been cared for she brought the pump back. a brass encased shell shot out and clinked on the floor and came to rest against the wall. Inspecting the breach she slid the pump forward slowly and saw another brass shell slid into place.

Bending over she picked up the ejected shell and examined it. the shell was etched with the imperial eagle and was a fragmentation slug designed to split into four pieces when connecting with something solid. having seen similar weapons in the ships armory she knew this to be well crafted shotgun with military grade ammunition. guessing that the owner of the shop had been in the military at some point she collected the extra shells, gems, and bars and transported them to her vehicle.

Placing the shotgun in the cab with its shells she drove back to the landing pad and unloaded her haul.

Sleeping for a few hours was quite refreshing and Joelle smiled for the first time in weeks.

Driving out into the city again she found a sporting goods store and collected survival equipment. walking in she was picked out an easy to set up arctic survival tent, the tent was bright yellow and came with half a signal flares and a flare gun. placing these in her trailer they wer followed by a second kit and three arctic sleeping bags and a travel mattress.

opening the case she pulled out several knives and small caliber pistols, while these were not military grade weapons they had the advantage of being slug throwers and didnt need recharging in addition to this there was plenty of ammunition on the shelves.

Breaking the lock on the rifle rack she took down a 30-06 bolt action rifle with a mat black finish, a x8 optical scope with night vision settings and a bi pod. next she pulled down a 7.62mm semi/full auto assault rifle in a bull pup design with raised sights, carrying handle, pistol grip, front grip and a fixed magazine. lastly Joelle pulled down a four foot 50 caliber rifle with a x20 digital scope and laser range finder. the muzzle break was 4 inches wide and painted gloss black.

filling several buggies with guns and ammunition it took her several hours to take everything she might need from the sporting goods store.

Next door was a military surpluss store, upon walking in she quickly located a colonal's shirt and coat, a military grade adamantium helmet, auto adjusting carapace armor with stabilizers and a grav chute insertion kit. these items went into her trailer and she went back into the store. several boxes of pitons and climbing ropes followed the uniforms, next came several machete's a sniper's guille suite and a crate of flint for starting fires.

her trailer full she took the load back to the landing platform and spend the next two days seperating the items into plastic tubs with labels. having completed this process she moved to the next level of the hive.

A month after having found the hive city Colonel Youngblood as she bagan to refer to herself, being the only surviving member of her unit and thus the commanding officer looked out over the dirty radiation encrusted snow. Having spent the majority of her time collecting stuff that she would need to survive she finally felt ready to make her way to the caves.

now she just had to figure out how to get all her stuff there. driving it there and back was not an option as it would take a full week or more to get there and back, doing the calculations in her head she figured it would take the better part of a standard year just for transportation. figuring she needed a heavy hauler she began going through the surviving military vehicles for something suitable.

after having looked through thousands of light vehicles she came across a sealed bunker door. having nothing better to do Joelle placed a dozen tube charges in the middle of the thick adamantium panels. ripping the det tape off the first charge she sprinted away and plugged her ears as she hid behind a concrete barrier designed to slow traffic down. feeling the concussive force knock the wind out of her before the defining roar reached her she was mildly surprised that her ears were not ringing after the blast.

standing up from the barrier she look to see a massive hole in the door big enough for a combat lander to fly through, grinning she walked through the glowing hole and discovered a full military depot. thousands of crates were stacked in neat rows with hundreds of sentinal heavy lifter walkers lining the wall on either side of the door. thinking that this would be a perfect place to find a vehicle large enough to haul her things she began making her way across the cavernous cargo bay.

Passing crates with labels in low gothic, high gothic and some other language she found that the crates belonged to the Cadian 347th mechanized infantry division. having seen some uniforms for that unit in her travels through the hive she assumed that they had been evacuated hastily and left much of the supplies behind.

Having walked for twenty minutes joelle found the docking bay doors, one door was open and the rest were tightly shut. The open door revealed a spacious cargo hold of an imperial short range transport ship. the ship having no warp drive was abandoned by the cadian forces when they fled the planet.

Walking through the cargo hold she found the single man cockpit empty and lifeless. sitting in the pilots chair she sighed loudly.

Looking at the controlls she noticed a blinking green button on a side panel. pushing the button Joelle was delighted to find the craft was in working irder and prepared to fly. As the interior lights came on she began to search the cockpit for the instruction manual.

after several minutes she located the manual which had been stuffed behind the seat to use as a lumbar support for the last pilot. Relaxing in the seat she began to read, looking at the table of contents she flipped to the chapter "Startup Procedures" reading the procedures she was surprised at how many there were. deciding to take the manual with her she quickly shut the computer off and left the vehicle.

the next day she began packing her stuff into the transport, the things she had collected took up a small corner of the ship and she decided to pack as much of the military supplies into the transport as she could. activating a power lifter Joelle began stacking crates of food and medical supplies into the transport. several days later and roughly half the cargo ship's space she had all the food and medical supplies loaded.

collecting several crates of lascannon's with thier power packs she stored them in the ships hold, these were followed by some heavy bolter's, heavy stubbers, several crates of anti vehicle mines and a few assault cannons with several million rounds of ammunition. these were followed by a dozen crates of military grade tools, equipment, several stacks of flak board, and a stack of adamantium armor plating.

after driving her vehicle into the transport she strapped it down and loaded up a sentinal power lifter and docket it into its slot near the exit ramp of the ship.

Climbing into the cockpit of the transport she reviewed the start up procedures and opened the outer bay doors. igniting the engines she waited a min for them to cycle and come up to speed. pushing the throttles forward she slowly pulled the massive aircraft out of the docking bay and slowly climbed to an altitude of about one hundred feet, just skimming the tops of the building with an airspeed three times faster then her ground vehicle.

within seconds joelle was beyond the city limits and into the grey and black skies of the planet.


End file.
